Tyrone O’Neill’s chances of making a third Darlington debut this weekend have been enhanced by an FA decision this week, and a run of games would be beneficial to him.

The striker has joined for a third time and bolsters a forward line that feature a Luke Charman-shaped hole in the middle of it.

Quakers have scored five goals in their last five games, all by Charman, but he is now suspended for four matches following an unsuccessful appeal to the FA against the red card he was shown on Boxing Day away to Spennymoor Town.

“Whatever was going to happen with the suspension, I had to get Tyrone in just in case,” explained Alun Armstrong. “Obviously I know what we’re getting with Tyrone, I’ve worked with him plenty of times.

“He was happy here last time and enjoying himself, it might take a couple of weeks to get him up to speed. He was here last season but there’s a whole new group now.

“Hopefully we’ll get him back up to speed quite quickly.”

O’Neill has had spells with Darlington in each of the past two seasons, on loan from Middlesbrough each time, in total scoring nine goals in 27 appearances.

This time around the Teessider joins from Scunthorpe United, the League Two strugglers who O’Neill joined in the summer.

The 22-year-old made four appearances in the opening weeks of the season after joining when Neil Cox was manager, but injury and Cox being replaced by Keith Hill have meant first-team chances have been hard to come by.

O’Neill has not played in a competitive match since September 18, and Armstrong added: “I’ve watched a lot of games at League Two and it’s a very physical place. Tyrone doesn’t mind that at all, but he loves hanging onto the ball.

“He’s not fallen into the manager’s plans there, a new manager has come in with his own ideas and doesn’t fancy him for some reason.

“But until you give Tyrone a run of games and see what he gives you, you’re not going to understand him.

“He needs match fitness, a run of games to get him up to match sharpness so that might take time, hence us getting him in last week.

“I’ll keep Luke as long as I can as in the meantime hopefully we’ll bed Tyrone in and get him up to speed.”

Whether O’Neill is thrown into the starting XI remains to be seen, but Jake Cassidy is a certain starter having again impressed Armstrong last Saturday against Spennymoor.

“The only thing that was lacking was that he could’ve been between the sticks a bit more,” said Armstrong.

“He had a header in the first half which he should’ve done better with, but he reminds me of Luke when he first came. He’s always on the edge of the box when the ball is wide rather than being in the box between the sticks.

“As a number nine you should never be out of there when the ball is wide. Luke was exactly the same when he first came, waiting for the ball to come out and have a shot from there.

“We’ve got that out of Luke and he’s getting all kinds of goals now, hopefully we can do the same with Cass.”

There have been representatives from EFL clubs watching Charman in recent weeks, and Armstrong was keen to point out: “Tyrone coming doesn’t mean that Luke is going. We don’t have to sell Luke, we don’t want to sell him, I’ve brought Tyrone in because we do need another centre-forward.

“We didn’t have fresh legs on the bench against Gateshead last week, so that showed we needed a striker.”

Farsley are 20th, six positions and seven points behind Darlington. They yesterday brought in striker Jerome Greaves on loan from Rotherham, while they are boosted by the return of former Darlington target Jimmy Spencer, who has served a suspension.